"Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" are ten years apart. And I can't say which one I like more. These are landmarks in horror, films that redefined and elevated the zombie subgenre to universally recognized popular culture. Both of these films are masterful blends of horror, social commentary, and even satire that continue to find fans in each new generation of viewers.
The first of these two films is thinly vailed commentary on race issues in America in the '60s. The second is about the absurdity of American consumerism. I have read that George Romero claims that he wasn't thinking of these things at the time. If so, it's quite a surprise. The themes are pretty hard to miss in both films.
"Dawn of the Dead" follows a group of survivors who seek refuge in a shopping mall as the zombie outbreak sweeps the nation. The mall becomes a microcosm of society, a place where the survivors play out a consumer fantasy of having everything at their fingertips. Of course at the same time danger always lurks, and often not from the undead.
"Dawn of the Dead" is extra fun for anyone that remembers what stores and products were in malls of the '70s. There's a lot of obsolete stuff and nostalgia in the film, and today malls themselves are their own kind of undead anyway.
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